1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to the capture and analysis of data input by a user for a field-fillable form.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Manually filled-in or field-fillable paper forms are used in many contexts to collect information. Some examples of manually field-fillable paper forms include, without limitation, survey questionnaires, tax returns, job applications, tests, etc. Data can be manually entered by a user on the paper form in multiple ways. For example, some fields to be manually filled can be simple check boxes, while some fields on the paper may require handwritten numbers or letters. The form can also have preprinted information on it that is used to identify the form itself (for example, a 1040 tax return vs. a Schedule A, an indentifier to indicate who is manually filling in the form. Etc.). Such pre-printed information can be machine-printed characters and/or a bar code format.
Once such a form is filled-in, the data on it is only available to other systems when a data entry process takes place. The most common form of data entry is manual, key-from-paper. A slightly more advanced version of this is to ascertain or key the data in one or more fields that have been manually filled by the user from an image, after the piece of paper has been digitized into a picture, such as with a document scanner. More advanced approaches to data entry automate the process known automated techniques including, without limitation, using bar code recognition, optical character recognition (OCR), Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) for check boxes, and Intelligent Character Recognition (ICR) for hand-printed characters. When automating data entry, the document image (or a “snippet” or portion of one or more individual fields or part(s) of the full form) and recognition results are typically displayed on a computer screen to a user for “verification” purposes (for example, to decide whether uncertain or unidentified characters are correct or not).
When working with a simple multi-function peripheral (MFP) device, which can be a peripheral that includes a document scanner and document printer combined into a single unit or device, it is possible to scan paper forms and to send them for manual or automated data entry. It is not possible, however, to conveniently run a “verification” step or procedure on the MFP devices built-in display, since the display on the MFP device is typically limited in size and lacks an associated keyboard, making it difficult to show a snippet and/or recognition results after analysis of the scanned document, and further lacks enough information for a user to enter changes/corrections to the document through some input device (such as a touch screen) for the MFP device. Additionally, other users may be waiting to use the MFP device while it is being used or “tied up” by someone struggling with verification. Thus, there is no easy way to use an MFP device for the complete data entry process, i.e., from scanning, through recognition, and (most importantly, from a data accuracy standpoint) verification of the recognition results.
Many MFP devices are therefore used primarily as scan devices. A document may originally be printed on the MFP device, then filled in, scanned, and the scanned image of the filled-in document is then analyzed by software that performs recognition and any verification that is needed at a later stage and possibly by someone other than the person who had manually entered information on the printed document. In addition, in some scenarios, the problem of verification is simply ignored, meaning that when there is uncertainty in the recognition results, no additional human intervention is employed, negatively impacting the accuracy of results. Thus, forms that have hand-printed or handwritten characters typically have many uncertain results that need to be addressed for high-quality data.